There is much talk about 2012 being a ‘special’ year, with or without London hosting the Olympics, and whether this proves to be the case I don’t absolutely know. However I can state confidently that it is a special year within the arts and its only March! There have been events every week so far this year in the theatre, art and music halls, galleries and basements of London that are capturing peoples’ attention and proving successful critically and commercially. In the gallery world David Hockney, Lucian Freud and  Leonardo Da Vinci are getting the sold out headlines with their exhibitions (Hockney is not 100% sold out, small late afternoon queue though very busy inside). Anselm Keifer, Damien Hirst and Lygia Pape have been and gone already, and everyone – and especially my friend Sarah – is raving about Yayoi Kusama at Tate Modern. Cultural overload may be nigh in 2012.

Unusually for artsandmoresw4 my first mention of the year must go to theatre and the play Constellations, put on by The Royal Court Theatre in its Upstairs space. Written by Nick Payne the play is a two-hander, and this original production featured Sally Hawkins (Golden Globe-winning actress for Mike Leigh’s film Happy-Go-Lucky) and Raph Spall (Shaun of The Dead, Pete vs Life). Garnering five star notices the play sold out very quickly. (Interestingly there also appear to be more five star reviews this year, are critics becoming more accepting of excellent work and acknowledging this or is it like A-levels and the standards have questionably risen? Indeed check out Fringe Review for some recent accurate theatre, Union/Blue Elephant, five star notices). Not one to be put off I took advantage of the Court’s stand-by £10 two tickets only per person at 10am one very cold Monday morning in January, queuing at an hour I normally spend dreaming. Without giving too much away – perhaps it will be revived/transferred/televised – the sparse open boxing ring/ballroom floor like stage in this intimate space provided the scene for what became one of the outstanding theatre pieces I have ever seen.

Both actors appeared brilliantly at ease with each other, whatever the dialogue requested of them, and the different scenarios of the repeatedly similar scenes added weight to the options and possiblities that relationships and life offer at different times, in different places, in different moments. The writing was natural and sharp, the performances outstanding. Sally Hawkins was incredibly believable and as natural as on film, gently and flirtatiously commanding the space, and Raph Spall acted like the bloke-next-door ‘trying to be a modern man but not quite there’, showing a confident inner strength and yet uneasy frustration. The memory of his proposal speeches (yes, there were several attempts) still brings me out in laughter and the theme of Quantum multiverse theory and relationships has never been so appealing! A remarkable piece, there will be people pointing out that it is not an absolutely original idea but this play is like a painting that, whilst referencing other artists and ideas, creates an original tour-de-force. Our own post-show discussion was highly animated, with my healer/medium friend Yuka and another early queue-goer who had travelled from East Germany especially to see this play having read reviews on the ‘net, the wondrous ‘net, and myself trying to get our heads and subtle bodies around the concept of the play and the nature of chance and parallel lives. At the same time we were also aware that though physically we were in the bar at the theatre at that point we were also probably somewhere else engaged in a different conversation. In the future. In the past. At that very same moment in time. Phew, a large red wine please. Thought-provoking theatre and very funny at times (the two are not incompatible) there is so much of the script I would like to quote but I won’t, not to keep you wonderful readers in suspense but because I hope there is some opportunity for you to see the play in the future – yes, a large hint to directors and theatres! You can also buy the £3 script book for the theatre if you really can’t wait. Wonderful.

Speaking of chance I believe it was the Friday before – though what is chronological time nowadays?- I went to see Consellations that, in search of a stationery cupboard, I was wandering around the Kings X/Gray’s Inn Rd. area and noticing some great looking cafes by the Theobald’s Rd./Gray’s Inn Rd. bit when I remembered that Damien Hirst’s exhibition had recently opened at the Kings X Gagosian Gallery. (No I didn’t get the cupboard, £70 extra to have it in purple put me off). Must pop-in I thought. Titled The Complete Spot Paintings 1986-2011 the exhibition comprised of spot paintings of different sizes titled with pharmaceutical references. Eleven Gagosian Galleries around the world, it turned out, were showing spot paintings at the same time (and I couldn’t afford to go to all of them and thus receive a signed print, however appealing though carbon unfriendly that would be). I had seen some of Damien Hirst’s paintings at White Cube some years ago – not my thing – but some of his earlier work had fascinated and intrigued me.

I was also aware of Damien’s spot paintings because of the Tate Modern boat – very nice – and I think he had some on the wall when a kind friend took once me to the hip Quo Vadis restaurant in Soho (or is that the expensive wine talking?). So I had no preconceptions really. I have been to the Gagosian Kings X before and I like the space. This time it seemed much bigger. I thought it had been physically extended though according to the nice gallery assistant I asked rooms not normally used were being used now. Good idea. My first impression of the main exhibition space was ‘wow this whole room is full of spots’ and then I realised that all the rooms were full of spots and the merchandise stall was full of spots. Spots on t-shirts, spots on mugs, spots on skateboards!

I became immediately conscious of the no-spots-on-us security personnel. In beautiful dark suits and different shades of hair colour they gave a movie-like air to the gallery and I genuinely thought a heist was imminent and I was going to be in the middle of it and be kidnapped somewhere, preferably hot with good food and large grounds for exercise. They were polite but slightly unnerving. Perhaps this added to the tension, making this appear to be an ‘important event’. Take them away and would the spots have half their interest? However I was suprised at my reaction to the spots. I became drawn in. I noticed the different sizes, the different pure colours, the different strange names of the paintings. From an occasional curator’s point of view I was also going wild (yes, even with security, but don’t worry it was internal wild) over the different shapes of the canvas (rectangular, square, circular), the white walls, the spaces between the spots, the spaces between the canvasses, the half-spots falling off the canvas. Strangely of all the pieces on display the faded looking canvas became the most appealing, why I wasn’t sure. Do faded spots and canvas conjure up key memories, who knows? As I was noticing the security guards they probably started noticing me as I stayed a long time in the gallery, going from room to room becoming almost spot-deluded and definitely financially-deluded as I began to think I would like to buy one, just one small spotted canvas. Please.

If I had been to the exhibition with an analyst perhaps she/he could have tried to interpret the excitement I felt with these colours. Am I really only five years old and wanting to play with colour in a simple way? Is it appealing to my inner frustrated artist? Are the coloured spots aligning with my coloured chakras to produce a Large Haldron Collider moment? Am I tapping into Damien’s own conscious excitement about pure colour? Am I being ridiculously deceived? Whatever my questions the joy of these works suprisingly got to me and I came out of the gallery a very spot-happy man, genuinely excited. Very excited in fact. Spots and more at Hirst’s forthcoming retrospective at Tate Modern in April could well be worth a visit.